What does Freedom really mean in our modern society?

We understand that, in our past not too long ago. Being a free human being was not that common. In a time where rich and powerful people had personal slaves who enabled them to live lives in luxury. Chores and labour were met by people they owned. In return they gave them shelter and food, just enough so they could survive and continue to work for them, in some cases not even that.

Today, many would agree that it’s not that much different. We do at least get paid for our time in exchange for money, which enables us to do the things we want to do and hopefully be able to live a good life. So with other words our eight hours, five times a week becomes more like a trade rather than being forced to work or lose our life. This is at least true in some parts of our world.

However, today’s topic is about freedom in a personal sense, and what it might mean in our modern society. But also, is there a deeper perspective to that which we call freedom?

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

-Nelson Mandela

Financial  freedom

Generally, when people say; “I want to become free and do whatever I want” they refer to financial freedom. They want to make enough money so that the lack of money does not become an obstacle in their life. When the money question is out of the way, they will be free to do whatever they want.

When we look at the financial aspect of freedom, we see that having financial freedom enables us to not be bound by time in a certain way. Because now, we do not have to think about the survival part of the life equation, which then leaves room for other things we want to do with our time. This might be a sufficient form of freedom for people who would be content with life through material wealth. But then again is this freedom? Are we truly free as humans when we achieve this kind of freedom? Would our suffering in life come to an end? Would our thirst for happiness be met with the endless material wealth? Would drama be non-existent in our lives?

Is there a deeper perspective to freedom?

Even if we become the richest person in the world and have all the possible free time in the world. There are still aspects within the human experience that are deeply in chains. Which no money or physical thing can release us from.

One of the most apparent chains are what we call thought and emotion. These two combined bound us to many things in life, which might not be so apparent at first glance. We can also call these chains, “attachments”. This might not be a new concept for people who have buried their heads into the self-development bookshelf.

When we look at what an attachment is, we see that it is thought-form. A thought that most likely is a memory from the past which then when recalled is connected to a feeling, an emotion. In turn these emotions are connected to objects, persons, past situations and events that make us feel good and happy, or sad and miserable. No matter how rich we become, no matter how financially free we become. Our unchecked thoughts and emotions will still hold our being and life experience in bondage until we learn to see them for what they are. We basically become slaves to our habits, our wants, impulses, needs and other people.

Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.

-Jim Morrison

What is freedom?

So now we question, isn’t this a part of the human experience, isn’t this the way we are supposed to be, and why shouldn’t we keep on being this way? How do we live a free life without being bound to these thoughts and habits?

Some of these emotions and memories are like chains attached to heavy rocks that we drag behind for years, some people even drag them to their very last moment.

Their whole life becomes a misery, just because of something that happened to them in their past which they still hold on to. Some are able to distract themselves and forget these memories with time until they come up to the surface unexpectedly when a similar experience or feeling reminds them of something that happened. Some are able to understand, they recognise and process these thoughts, they forgive themselves and others to be able to move on with their lives. However most people are not even aware that memories, thought patterns and past traumas limit their life experience and become a burden in their lives.

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.

-Sigmund Freud

A way to freedom

The more awareness we bring into our lives, the more we choose to look at ourselves, our memories, our thoughts and feelings. The more self conscious we become.

With this self observation, we allow new perspectives to be perceived and by questioning these newly found perspectives. We start to see our thoughts, emotions and habits for what they are. Which in turn helps us see and realise why we feel the way we do, why we think the way we do. We become able to see where and at what we waste our limited time and energy. We are then able to replace our unhealthy thoughts and habits with healthier one’s.

The objects that once gave us temporary happiness start to lose their meaning. People and situations that have passed but we still hold on to start to reveal their reasons and deeper meaning. The more we realise, the more we forgive and let go, the lighter our life experience becomes. In time, we stop creating unnecessary resistance and obstacles for ourselves and learn to flow with the waves of life. The more we learn to go with the flow of life the more room and energy we’ll have to create and experience the life we want to see and be a part of.

So to come to the point of this post, financial freedom might not be the freedom we truly seek. Freedom is achievable regardless of our financial situation. It is a state of being. Freedom becomes apparent once we as humans become conscious of our thoughts and emotions that shape our being, the moment we are able to release ourselves from thoughts and memories, habits and people who hold us chained. True freedom is when we are able to see and choose that which becomes a part of our self-identity, whether it is money, people, objects or self-beliefs, but at the same time being able to drop it all, accepting the emotions and learning to see through the thoughts and moving on from there. True freedom is achievable regardless of your life situation. It is a state of being.

We will look more into this subject in a later post, where we will look at ways to look deeper into ourselves.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

-Mohandas Gandhi